card game combining elements of economics with elements of politics

ABSTRACT

A card game where players start and grow businesses, simulating that aspect of the economy involving public and pre-public companies. The game can be played by two or more players, with an upper limit constrained only by time. Cards represent opportunities available to each player. Opportunities can be of an economical kind, such as recruiting talent or investing in infrastructure. Opportunities can also be political, or regulatory, such as securing a government contract or product approval. Money, valuations and ownership are represented by different types of tokens. External factors, such as recessions, inflation, and elections, are actuated through special event cards, or notes on other cards, or a combination thereof.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention relates to a card game where players start and growbusinesses, simulating that aspect of the economy involving public andpre-public companies.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

To start a business in the real world takes a combination of ideas,opportunities and action. A card game lends itself well to simulate thelatter two of this process. Cards, as shuffled in a deck, representopportunities. As players draw cards from the deck, this represents theopportunities available to the business leader. Playing a given cardrepresents the action a leader took in following up on such anopportunity.

Having the opportunity is not always enough. Sometimes additionalresources are required to execute on it. For instance, an opportunitymay arise to take over a local business, but money will be needed toacquire licenses and fund initial operation. Such resources can berepresented by different types of tokens, each indicating a unit ofcurrency, credit, a favor, or any other element necessary to complete anaction.

People differ in the viewpoints on how businesses are operated, grantedlicenses, regulated and ruled on. Some has a public-interest view, whereeverybody acts only in accordance with proper codes and for the commongood. At the other extreme, some has a cynical view where nobody willact without an external incentive leading to personal gain. The latterextreme are sometimes depicted for satirical purposes. The currentinvention can be used to simulate the range of these viewpoints, andthis description shall not be construed to advance any one.

In the embodiment of this invention, there are four kinds of tokens,divided into chips and markers, used to represent money, politicalfavor, value, and ownership, respectively,

Cards can also be used to simulate unexpected events. A business can dowell, until a recession hits. An entrepreneur may save up money for anew venture, only to discover that inflation has wiped out some of it.The current invention includes the element of unexpected events,represented either as separate cards, or notes on existing cards, or acombination. In the embodiment, a combination of these is used toexecute various types of events. The flow of events is also used tosimulate the boom and bust cycle of the economy.

The concept of an unexpected event can also be used to end the game,using an “End Game” event. Typically, card games, are over when thebottom of the deck is reached, or a condition obtains. Players can thuspredict fairly accurately when the game ends. Using an “End Game” eventto end the game introduces some uncertainty. It also allows forvariable-length games, where an “End Game” event at top part of the deckwill result in a short game, whereas placing it at or near the bottomleads to a longer game.

The preferred embodiment illustrates the use of the invention tosimulate starting and advancing businesses in a large national economy,such as that of the USA. The invention can also be used to simulate thesame process in a local economy, or an international economy where thebusinesses are all multinational. It can also be used to simulate thesame process in a specific industry.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a sample action card from the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a sample company card from the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a sample event card from the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 4 is the same sample card shown in FIG. 3, with tokens illustratedon it as they would be placed during game play.

FIG. 5 is a sample “End Game” card from the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a top view, showing a possible layout during game play.

FIG. 7 shows examples of political cards from the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the game structure of the preferred embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the process of adjusting the number ofvalue tokens on a company from a game operation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows a sample action card. The action card has a title 1 and adescription 2. It also has a cost to play 3, denoting the tokensrequired to play this card. When players perform an action by playingthe card, the number of tokens, in this case 1$, must be paid back tothe public pool, often called “the bank.”

FIG. 2 shows a sample company card. In the embodiment, all companies arefictitious. Each company has a name 4 and a sector 5. The sector is away to group companies together. In the embodiment, companies also hasproperties 6 and powers 7, creating some distinction between thecompanies. A graphic 8 helps players to visually tell the companiesapart during play. Though the embodiment depicts companies, theinvention can include any economic entity, including charitableorganizations, non-profit entities, NGOs, etc.

FIG. 3 shows an event card from the embodiment. An event has a title 9and a description 10. Along with the title and description, a graphic 11identifies the card as an event card.

FIG. 4 shows the same company card from FIG. 2, as seen from its title14. Here, tokens are shown on the card to illustrate how evaluation andownership is tracked. Two value tokens 15 are placed on this card. Asevents or actions improve or diminish the evaluation of a company, valuetokens are placed on the company card, in the case of improvement, orvalue tokens are removed from the card, in the case of a decrease.Optionally, specific rules apply if a value token must be removed from acompany that has none. In the embodiment, these are called the“bankruptcy rules,” and leads to the company card being placed back inthe company card pile.

The figure also shows markers from two different players. Each playeruses markers of a given color. Here, one player uses black markers 16,another player uses white markers 17. Each marker corresponds to a blockof shares, each block consisting of an unspecified number of individualshares. It will be understood that the player represented by the blackmarkers has two blocks of shares in this sample, while the player withthe white markers has three blocks of shares. In the rules for theembodiment, it is specified that each marker can be bought or sold for anumber of dollar-tokens equal to the number of value tokens on thecompany card, or two for one in the case of a company card with no valuetokens.

FIG. 5 shows the sample “End Game” 12 event card. As previouslydescribed, this can be placed somewhere in the deck of action cardsdepending on how long a game the players wish to play. The game endswhen a player draws the “End Game” card, with optional variations 13.For instance, the embodiment stipulates that one last round is playedafter the “End Game” card is revealed.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a hypothetical game in progress. Forsimplicity, only two players are shown, though the game can be playedwith any number of players, constrained only by time and physicalcomponents. In the following, the two players are referred to as the“top” and “bottom” player, respectively.

In the embodiment, companies are considered “private” until it hasundergone an Initial Public Offering (IPO) process. This is indicatedduring play by placement of the companies. Thus, the player representedat the top of the figure has one company (“Trade Corp”) in the privatesection 18 and two companies (“Nuts and Bolts, Inc,” “Pharm, Inc”) inthe public section 19. The other player has two companies (“Shoppers,Inc,” “Computer Corp”) in the private section 21 and one company (“OilCorp”) in the public section 20. The pile of company cards is shown 22with the top card (“The Drill Corp”) showing face-up. The action cardpile is shown with the cards being face down 23. When a player starts anew company, the top card from the company pile is placed into theprivate section in front of that player.

Each player also has a number of tokens representing their assetsavailable for investing or playing action cards. The top player has twoasset tokens 24 and the bottom player has three asset tokens 25.

FIG. 7 shows some samples of cards relating to the political aspect ofthe embodiment. One card 26 is used by players to attempt influencethrough a Political Action Committee. This card is an example of anaction where additional funds can be applied to increase the potency ofthe action 27. In the embodiment, it is also possible for players to runfor political office 28. In the case of an election event 29, suchoffices are either retired, or must be regained through special actions.Elections have additional impact on the standing of each player 30,representing a changing political landscape. This sample shows anadditional effect 31 denoted through extra notes on the card. In theembodiment, these notes are unrelated to the other aspects of the card.

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart for setting up and playing a game. Players willshuffle the company cards 32 and the action cards 33. In the embodiment,the action deck includes events. The players each get starting cards andtokens 34. The first player takes a turn at play 35. At the end of eachturn, the player draws a card 36. If the card is an action card, theplayer adds it to his or her hand 38. If the card is an event 40, thisis executed immediately. If the event is the “End Game” event 41, thegame ends 42. If the card was not the “End Game” event—i.e., it was notan event card, or it was an event card other than the “End Game”event—play continues with the next player 39. Winning is determined bythe aggregate value of the companies each player started.

FIG. 9 shows a flowchart for adjusting the number of value tokens on acompany during a game operation, where a game operation is defined aseither an action, an event, or some other operation performed by aplayer. Only actions or events have the ability to adjust value tokens,so other operations, such as trading stock, is not shown.

Most operations would not lead to an adjustment 43, 44, 45. The valuetokens are adjusted depending on the particular event, or whether anaction targets that company. If a value token is added, this ends theprocess 46. If a value token is to be removed, and there are any valuetokens on the company already, a value token is removed 48. If there areno value tokens to remove, then the separate bankruptcy process isfollowed 47. For simplicity, the chart assumes only one value token isadded or removed 49. Events or actions can result in adjusting valuetokens up or down by more than one.

1. A method for playing a business card game, played by a plurality ofplayers, where cards are used to represent economic entities, each cardrepresenting a unique entity, with value tokens placed on a cardindicating the strength of the entity that card represents, the gamecomprising the steps of: shuffling the cards representing the economicentities; determine the number of entities each player should startwith; determine how the game will end; distributing the predeterminednumber of cards to each player; placing the rest of the cards in acommon pile; the plurality of players taking turns manipulating thevalue tokens on the entity cards in play, each turn allowing a player toperform actions manipulating tokens in play or bringing new tokens intoplay; and determining a winner at game's end, wherein the winner is theplayer with the most number of value tokens on the entities in front ofthat player.
 2. The method in claim 1, where additional attributes onthe card is used to divide economic entities into identifiable groups.3. The method in claim 1, where entities can be either public orprivate, its status as public or private indicated with a marker or itsplacement.
 4. The method in claim 1, where ownership tokens are used byto indicate each player's stock ownership in the economic entity thecard represents.
 5. The method in claim 4, where asset tokens are usedto represent wealth available to each player.
 6. The method in claim 5,where players are allowed to buy and sell ownership tokens in order toacquire asset tokens.
 7. The method in claim 5, where action cards areused by players to further manipulate the value tokens on the entitiesin play, further comprising the steps of: shuffling all action cards ina pile; distribute a predetermined number of action cards to eachplayer; placing the remaining action cards in a common pile, face down;and allowing the players to use and acquire the action cards duringplay, each card requiring a plurality of asset tokens to play.
 8. Themethod in claim 7, where some of the action cards may result in playersacquiring a plurality of political tokens, and some of the action cardscosting political tokens to play.
 9. The method in claim 8, where eventcards are further added to the pile of action cards, each event card,when drawn from the pile, providing an unexpected adjustment either tovalue tokens on entities, or asset tokens belonging to players, orpolitical tokens belonging to players.
 10. The method in claim 8, whereplayers may hold political office, each office acquired through theplaying of the requisite action card, the holding of office resulting inthe gain of political tokens.
 11. The method in claim 8, where playersare allowed to trade with each other.
 12. The method in claim 8, whereentities have powers allowing players to perform actions without playinga card, each power requiring its own predetermined number of tokens toinvoke.
 13. The method in claim 9, where one of the event cards is an“End Game” event, providing a surprise timing to the ending of the game,and allowing players to adjust the length of the game.
 14. The method inclaim 9, where offices are ended through a matching event.